Don’t miss out on a new recipe, sign-up for FREE e-mail delivery!

Bone-In Beef Short Ribs

Tender, fall-off-the-bone beef short ribs in a flavorful sweet, smokey sauce. Ready in a fraction of the time when you cook them in the pressure cooker.

My favorite oven-baked beef short rib recipe is from Simply Recipes. They’re fantastic ribs, but they’re time intensive, they take two days to make, and require ingredients I don’t always have on hand. So I decided to create a quick, pressure cooker version using just what I had in the pantry.

I keep a tube of tomato paste in the fridge, as well as a container of beef base to make beef stock. There’s usually bacon in the freezer, and apple juice, onions and garlic in the pantry.

The bacon added a nice smokey flavor to the sauce, and the apple juice a little bit of sweetness.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get very many pictures of these succulent ribs. After I snapped a couple pictures I decided to remove that little strip of fat off the front of the rib. I gave it a little scrape with a fork and the meat was so tender, it fell off the bone and the sauce splashed and made a mess all over the plate and napkin.

I decided that was a sign I should stop taking pictures and eat the rib while it was still hot. I was glad I did. I now have a new favorite short rib recipe.

Bone-In Beef Short Ribs

Ingredients

4 large beef short ribs

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 slices bacon, finely chopped

1 large onion finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

1/2 cup apple juice

1 cup beef both

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

Directions

Season ribs generously with salt and pepper. Add oil to the pressure cooking pot, select Browning. When oil is hot, brown the ribs in small batches, do not crowd. Remove to a plate.

Add bacon to pressure cooking pot and cook until brown and crisp. Add onion to pressure cooking pot and sauté until tender about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook one minute more.

Add the apple juice and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits stuck on the bottom of the pot. Add beef broth, tomato paste, and ribs to pressure cooking pot, cover and lock lid in place. Select High Pressure and 40 minutes cook time*.

With tongs, remove ribs to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Use a fat separator and a mesh strainer to separate the fat from the juices. Return juices to the cooking pot.

In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water. Add to juices in the cooking pot. Select Sauté and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until juices thicken. Turn pressure cooker off.

Add ribs and stir to coat with the sauce. Put the lid back on the pressure cooker and let the ribs absorb some of the sauce for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally if sauce is still bubbling.

Serve over mashed potatoes or noodles.

Notes

You can also make the ribs the day before you want to serve them. Cool ribs to room temperature and refrigerate. The next day remove the solidified fat and reheat for a few minutes in the pressure cooker.

*After 40 minutes cook time - check your ribs for tenderness and if necessary, pressure cooker ribs longer until the meat is fall off the bone tender. Originally, I cooked the ribs 90 minutes, but others have said that was too long.

Some of the links in my posts may be “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Thank you for supporting Pressure Cooking Today when you shop!

Comments

Barbara, thank you — another delicious pressure cooker adventure/winner for us! I added a tablespoon of brown sugar in place of the apple juice (none on hand — though I cook pork with it frequently, so why not beef? Will add it the next time!) and used 4 lbs. of short ribs. Fantastic!

I’m going to try thiscrrcipe soon. I wanted d to comment on the lengthy of cooking time. I sell natural-raised, dry-aged beef for a living
The short ribs come in many sizes. If you get the really big ones, they would probably take the whole cooking time but the smaller ones wouldn’t take nearly as long. When people buy them from me I encourage them to buy them all the same size. Thanks for the great recipes.

I made this recipe tonight and it was delicious!! I cooked the short ribs for about 45 mins in an electric pressure cooker. I didn’t have any tomato paste on hand so I used ketchup. I also added carrots to my vegetables in the beginning and added my veggie/bacon base back into the gravy after separating the oil. My husband loved it. Thanks for the great recipe!

I made the Bone-in Beef Short Ribs last night and we loved them. However I cooked them only 35 minutes in a stovetop PC. I cannot imagine how this recipe would take 90 minutes even knowing people have differing ideas of “doneness.” Granted recipes cooked in a digital PC sometimes take a bit longer than those made in a stovetop, but not almost 3X as long. I could see cooking them 40 minutes instead of 35, but if anyone is going to try this recipe, I’d pressure cook them for 35-40 minutes, release the pressure, and check for doneness. If not to your liking bring them back to pressure and cook for whatever number of additional minutes seems to make sense to you.

I used a fat separator that has a top that filters out solids as the juices/fat pour into the separator. I then discarded those solids as I figured that the flavor had cooked out of them by then. However one could add the solids back into the sauce if desired once the fat was separated from the juices.

Am thinking that the next time I make this recipe I’ll substitute a bit of dry red wine for some of the beef broth. Whatever one does, this recipe is a winner.

So glad you thought the recipe is a winner. Deglazing the pan with a little red wine if you have it on hand is a great idea. Others have said the cook time is too long as well. I’ll try and find some time to cook them again soon. I adjusted the timing in the recipe. Thanks!

This sounds delicious.. But are you kidding – 90 minutes? Mine was a solid black cinder after 60 minutes. I will try this again and cook under high pressure for 30 minutes. Even a pot roast takes only 40 minutes.
Beware cooks of this recipe, only a railroad spike would take 90 minutes at high pressure!

I am concerned that you’re losing too much liquid when you’re pressure cooking. Typically you should be losing less than 4% every 10 minutes. You may want to do a water test. Boil 2 cups (16 ounces) of water for 10 minutes on high pressure and then measure the water again to see how much you’ve lost. You should have lost less than 1 ounce (.64 of an ounce) in 10 minutes.

Tried these last night. SO DELICIOUS! Thank you!
I’m Caribbean so I modified a little — more seasonings before browning, and some Angostura bitters and Worcestershire sauce in the broth. They only needed 45–50 minutes to be completely off the bone in my Cuisinart CPC-600. Delicious and soft enough for my 24-month old to enjoy.

made your short ribs two days ago, 90 minutes was a little too long, all the meat fell off the bone in pieces, but the flavor was to die for. excellent will make again & cut back on the time maybe to 60min instead of 90.
1st time visiting this site, I am going to make your pork chops tonight & let you know how I like them

Hi Rose – so glad you loved the flavor. Fall off the bone tender is just how I like them, although mine did not break in to pieces. But thanks for commenting so that if others like them a little less done, they can cook them less as well.

Oh, wow, do these look fantastic. So, I’ve never seen that beef base, but I’m going to keep an eye out for it. It sounds like a great pantry staple. The apple juice is ingenious. That must really give these a great sweetness contrast. Sorry about the splashed sauce, and it sounds like something I’d do. They look fabulous, and love that they take a fraction of the time to make.

I don’t think I’ve ever cooked short ribs…at least I don’t remember cooking them. Yours look so good. I’ll keep my eyes open for some good ones at the grocery store.

Ohhhhh that “Ijust move this one little thing-it’s bothering me” and what happens after? Been there done THAT plenty-and yes indeed-I use that as a sign that that’s enough photos for today. Bob? Nope…..”Carol…..come fix this mess…”